Each generation of American children growing up in the twentieth century has come of age in a different world. How do major historical events - such as war or the depression - influence children's development? Here is an examination of the implications of a changing society for children's growth and life chances.

Preface; Acknowledgments; Part I. A Proposal: 1. Studying children in a changing world; Part II. Historical and Life transitions: 2. America's home front children in World War II; 3. Rising above life's disadvantage: from the Great Depression; 4. Child development and human diversity; Part III. Life Transitions Across Historical Time: 5. Problem girls: observations on past and present; 6. Continuity and change in symptom choice: anorexia; 7. Fathers and child rearing; Part IV. The Cross-Disciplinary Collaboration: 8. The workshop enterprise; 9. The elusive historical child: ways of knowing the child of history and psychology; 10. A paradigm in question: commentary; 11. Epilogue; Bibliography; Author index; Subject index.